


Wired and Tired

by DieAstra



Category: Star Trek: Voyager
Genre: Episode Tag, ep. 4x13 "Waking Moments"
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-14
Updated: 2020-06-14
Packaged: 2021-03-03 22:55:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 607
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24713455
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DieAstra/pseuds/DieAstra
Summary: After they had to fight aliens in their sleep, Kathryn searches for a way to help her insomniac crew find peaceful sleep. And herself.Episode tag for episode 4x13 “Waking Moments”.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 5





	Wired and Tired

** Wired and Tired **

She was so tired. Even her beloved coffee didn’t help anymore. She just drank it out of habit. She was pacing on the bridge to keep herself awake. She’d probably fall asleep right there and then if she sat down in the captain’s chair.

Yet in the evenings when it was time to go to sleep, she was wide awake. Full of adrenaline. Even in her youth she sometimes had had this irrational fear that she might not wake up again if she fell asleep and tried to put it off for as long as possible.

Ever since she had to fight aliens in her sleep she knew that this fear was very rationale. So despite her body being bone tired her mind would not let her find the desired sleep. And when she finally succumbed to it in the early hours she woke up soon again long before it was time to get up. 

This had been going on for three days now and looking at her crew she knew it could not continue like this. 

They were lucky to be in a quiet corner of space right now but this could change any time soon and they needed to be alert to fight whatever threat the universe decided to throw at them.

She looked at Tom Paris. She’d just told him to lay in a course to get them out of here as fast as possible. There had been no response. So she gently tried again.

“Tom? Did you hear me?”

He shook himself and belatedly followed her order.

“Yes. Sorry, captain.”

She continued to look around her bridge. Harry Kim was grasping his console to not fall over. Tuvok stared straight ahead. He looked like he was asleep with eyes open. Chakotay – Chakotay looked the same as ever. Bright and alert and supportive. How did he do that? She knew he was sleepless like the rest of them. They all were suffering from the same memories. Neelix had told her about their early morning gatherings in the mess hall.

Enough of this. She walked towards the turbolift.

“Commander, you have the bridge.”

She found the doctor in sickbay, just as expected. He was probably the only one functioning on all levels right now. She envied him. Must be nice to be a hologram without any need for rest.

“Captain, what can I do for you?”

“Doctor – I know you were against sleeping pills for fear of addiction but my crew is falling apart, we need to do something.”

“What do you have in mind?”

“I thought of something. My mother told me that when I was a little child, they were trying to be very quiet for me to sleep. But I slept the best when they had a party going on in the next room. I knew there were people and I was safe then.”

“Interesting. So you suggest we create some kind of white noise to help everyone relax?”

“Something like that. How about you read the crew a bedtime story over the intercom?”

“I – what?”

She smiled.

“Something long and boring and monotone. Maybe some Shakespeare monologues?”

“Shakespeare is not boring!” the doctor protested.

“Find something else then. And if it is your medical manuals, I don’t care. I just want you to start reading tonight at 2200 sharp and monitor the personal quarters from here. You are only to stop when everyone is asleep. Got that?”

“Yes, captain!”

For the first time in what felt like a long time, she slept like a baby that night, listening to the soft comforting voice of the doctor.

The End


End file.
